


Kjelle and Severa's married tile conversations with CONTEXT!

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, Minor Original Character(s), and also a giant story at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-12 02:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4462376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You know those little glowing tiles? I took the eight conversations that married people can have with each other there, applied them to Kjelle and Severa, and made up some context.</p><p>First I'll show the unedited conversation in the notes, then I'll place it into a drabble below. There are eight drabbles in total, and one giant story for the last quote.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Severa: Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Severa: Look at that gash, Kjelle! Can't you take care of yourself for me?  
> Kjelle: Wipe that frown off your face. I'm stronger than any woman you could find.

The risen general rushes Kjelle with an axe, and she tries to back up to stab with her spear, but it’s easily knocked out of the risen’s way. Kjelle raises her shield, but this is one of the craftiest risen she’s ever faced, and it cuts low across her shin, easily crushing the armour and leaving a huge, bloody gash. This attack leaves the risen exposed, though, and Kjelle can instantly respond with a downward stab from her spear, piercing its armour and killing it with a billow of smoke. Kjelle kneels to the ground, leaning on her good leg to expose the wound. It’s not too deep, but it’s really bloody. As long as no one notices it, she can just walk it off.

“ARGH!”

“Huh?”

She looks up to see her wife sprinting towards her at mach speed, a combination expression of anger and worry sullying her usually beautiful face. Kjelle couldn’t help but smirk thinking that she already does that enough just by herself, sneering constantly. Kjelle smirk only worries Severa more, could she be suffering from blood loss? Severa screeches with concern

“Look at that gash, Kjelle! Can't you take care of yourself for me?”

“Wipe that frown off your face. I'm stronger than any woman you could find.”

“That doesn’t mean you can try to walk off bleeding to death!”

Severa has an honest expression of concern, peering down at her with eyes narrowed, attempting to not cry. Kjelle is hopped up on adrenaline, though, not even feeling the pain yet, and tries to stand up. She’s forced back down by Severa, who is ripping up her own shirt to dress the wound. Kjelle replies with vigor

“I’ll walk it off, it wasn’t even that deep. ”

Severa begrudgingly has to agree, it’s not a terrible cut, but she just can’t stand Kjelle constantly running into danger. She finishes up the bandage and lets out a frustrated sigh, glaring at Kjelle, who immediately stands back up again. Severa tries to look as stern as possible at her wife while saying

“I can’t stop you from fighting, but you’re staying behind me! I WILL NOT let you get hurt again!”

“Fine.”

Kjelle tried to sound as fed up as possible, but secretly smiles behind Severa’s back. She’s absolutely adorable when she gets this into something, and being the object of her affections just makes Kjelle’s heart sing.


	2. Severa: Compliment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one has two drabbles, I couldn't decide on which direction to take this quote, so I just did both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Severa: You're still my favorite thing to look at, Kjelle—more now than ever!  
> Kjelle: Wh-where did that come from? Please, such compliments catch me off guard…

The sunset was kinda pretty. The undulating clouds, rich colours, and beautiful scenery really would’ve been nice to look at, if she wasn’t being FORCED to do so thanks to her wife falling asleep during an extremely important lecture on the difference between bowties and hair bows. She glares at the dozing knight, then notices something else about her. Choosing a loose-fitting tunic probably hadn’t been the best idea, as a part of her shirt’s riding up, exposing her chiseled abs. Severa lays next to Kjelle, and exposes a bit more of it to catch a good view. Wow, Severa might care about makeup and looking pretty, but Kjelle’s practice shows particularly obviously. Her muscles are taut but attractive, reflecting light very slightly, but also very ticklish. She’s so pretty, and much more so than the sunset, but that lecture can’t wait until later. Severa runs her hands down Kjelle’s stomach, awakening her instantly with a

“Bwahaha! Gah, Severa?”

Severa then leans all the way up to Kjelle’s face and grabs the side, making her blush in such a cute, nonchalant manner that Severa can’t resist saying

“You're still my favorite thing to look at, Kjelle—more now than ever!”

“Wh-where did that come from? Please, such compliments catch me off guard…”

“Hah! You’d think that being ASLEEP would be off-guard enough for you.”

Severa gave her a sly, but warm smile, making Kjelle even more embarrassed, her face brightening to the shade of a tomato. She responds sheepishly

“D-did I fall asleep?”

“Yes, and during a super-important lecture about bowties and hair bows! I’m making sure you stay awake this time!”

“Oh, gods…”

“I hope you’re talking about the gods of fashion, who you’re DEFINITELY going to need to pray to!”

 

Alternatively:

 

Severa couldn’t stop her stare. Kjelle’s movement was so fluid, so calculated, so… pretty, she hates to admit. The knight hews right through a risen great knight and its mount, then turns around to slice a swordmaster in half. This display of skill was so exhilarating, her wife eliminating everything so efficiently, that the moment the melee was over, Severa steps up to Kjelle’s massive armour. Sidling her way into an awkward embrace with Kjelle’s shield arm, Severa sweetly says

“You're still my favorite thing to look at, Kjelle—more now than ever!”

“Wh-where did that come from? Please, such compliments catch me off guard…”

Kjelle hadn’t even noticed Severa approach, but now that her wife was here, she put both arms into the embrace, blushing like mad at the sudden compliment. Severa expounded on her compliment, saying

“Well, if I caught you off guard, maybe I shouldn’t compliment you, since I WAS just admiring your fighting.”

“Hey! The battle’s over, I can let my guard down.”

Severa breaks free of her grasp and draws her sword, getting into a fighting stance before smirking to comment

“Yeah, PLEASE let your guard down, this duel’ll be the easiest one yet!”

“As if!”

The two exhausted girls have at each other with perhaps too much enthusiasm for people who have been fighting for almost an hour.


	3. Severa: Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Severa: I love you, Kjelle. Just in case I haven't mentioned it.  
> Kjelle: Well... I love you, too. But don't make me say it again. It's embarrassing!

“Kjelle, do you really need to finish ALL of that blueberry pie?”

“Severa, you got a slice, just like everyone else. And your begging could not get more blatant.”

“Would you LIKE it to be more blatant?”

Severa smiles as she runs a finger down Kjelle’s muscular arm, not really trying to imply anything, but making her blush regardless. Kjelle sighs, glares at Severa, then cuts off a portion of her slice. She says

“Fine, but only if you do something for me, too.”

Severa takes the pie onto her own platter, pondering that for just a moment. Severa is used to having double dessert rations thanks to her mom, but in the back of her mind, she kept the thought that Kjelle might think that she’s being played. Well, duh, mind, she’s not, Severa loves her to pieces. But it doesn’t hurt to prove it from time to time… Severa says

“Something like… a kiss?”

“What?”

Severa leans over and steals a peck from Kjelle’s lips before she can even react. It’s fleeting and insubstantial, but turns some heads as Kjelle recoils and blushes wildly. Severa quickly makes the most of the situation, catching Kjelle off guard even more by saying

“I love you, Kjelle. Just in case I haven't mentioned it.”

“Well... I love you, too. But don't make me say it again. It's embarrassing!”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll try to NEVER embarrass you again.”

Severa’s smirk doesn’t comfort Kjelle in the slightest, but she can’t help but be charmed by her wife’s complete disrespect for traditional lovey-dovey forms of enjoying each other.

 


	4. Severa: Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Severa: You dropped something, Kjelle. Wait...since when did you have this?  
> Kjelle: These? They're leather armlets. I made a matching pair... if you want one.

Waking up, Severa stares around her tent in a half-conscious haze. It’s just as bland and blurry as she remembers it, but it does seem to be much taller. Wait, why’s the ground so close? Heeey… Severa leaps up, and glares at the sleeping girl sprawled out on her cot. Of COURSE Kjelle would be a restless sleeper. Why did either of them think that sleeping together on a cramped, tiny military cot was a decent idea in the first place?! Severa stomps her foot on the ground to keep from yelling, but doesn’t actually need to as she tries to distract herself from Kjelle’s adorable face, the messy hair falling around it in clumps. Severa sighs at her own hopelessness, unable to remain mad at someone so handsome for long. Instead, she coughs loudly to wake up Kjelle.

“Bwah! Huh? Severa?”

“Yeah! Thanks for shoving me off of the bed!”

“What did I do again?”

Kjelle looks adorably clueless as she gazes sleepily up at her leering wife, so Severa decides to be SLIGHTLY merciful to her. She merely screeches

“Well, ‘sweetie’, not ONLY did you shove me off of bed while we were sleeping, but this was YOUR dumb idea in the first place!”

Kjelle gradually becomes more and more alert, her wit being one of the first things to return, sharply commenting

“Har! You must’ve been vehemently opposed to have fallen asleep with me.”

“S-Shut up… And you should probably leave before anyone thinks we’ve been up to something…”

“Yeah.”

Severa helps her up, grabbing her hand, then immediately leaving to recover her dirt-covered sheets from the ground. Kjelle is a bit put off by the cold exit, but doesn’t like having any details of her love life to be public, so grabs her things hastily and begins to exit, but stops as she hears

“You dropped something, Kjelle. Wait...since when did you have these?”

“These? They're leather armlets. I made a matching pair... if you want one.”

Severa gapes at Kjelle, then stands up to get a better look at her blushing knight. Severa simply says

“Yeah, I think I’d like that…” and holds the vambraces all the tighter, before saying, with much less venom and much more blushing than before “Now get out.”

 

 


	5. Kjelle: Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is MUCH darker than the others. It is not fluffy in the slightest, so if you're here for that, maybe skip this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kjelle: Don't wander off on the battlefield, Severa. I have to keep you safe.  
> Severa: I'm not going to die. You're not going to LET me die, remember?

Severa spies a sniper hiding behind a low, ruined wall, and instantly dashes off to kill it before it can fire even a single shot at the lumbering knight behind her. She jumps over an arrow, then plunges her sword straight through the bandit’s neck. Landing in front of the wall, she vaults over it to check for any other opponents. Looking right, she just sees a pile of bramble and bushes, more casually looking towards the left, she sees a flash, and feels a sharp pain in her neck as she just barely jumps out of the way of a young girl’s aggressive stab. She’s holding a tiny knife, not enough to pierce armour, and wearing dirty, beaten-up clothing, just like the rest of the bandits. She’s much younger than Severa, but her eyes are full of almost as much grief. She screeches

“Daddeee!”

and lunges at Severa again. The mercenary slices her head off in one swift, horribly automatic motion, ending the scream in a garbled thud as the girl’s body hits the ground. Severa gapes at the sight, being forced to relive her own memories of lost parents. She stares around, taking in the lives of these two. She found their bedrolls and campfire, messy and unkempt at the back of the ruin. A crate with dirty clothing, and a barely-sewn-together book peeking out. A tear runs down Severa’s face, but she wipes it off quickly once she hears a gruff voice call out

“Severa? Where are you?!”

Kjelle hears a muttered, pained statement

“I- I’m over here.”

Kjelle watches Severa step lightly out from a ruined building, dragging her bloodstained sword behind her. Softly, Kjelle says

“Don’t wander off on the battlefield, Severa. I have to keep you safe.”

“I'm not going to die. You're not going to LET me die, remember?”

She’s shaking as she grapples onto Kjelle’s arm, prompting her to take a look at a long trail of blood down Severa’s neck. Kjelle fishes for words to say, but at Severa’s blank stare, she instead just picks her wife up and yells for a healer.


	6. Kjelle: Compliment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kjelle: Severa, you look absolutely dashing. I cannot take my eyes off you.  
> Severa: Of course. I look after my appearance. You should be proud of your lady.

Severa delicately moves the flap of her tent out of the way. It took a while, but she finally got all of her makeup to look EXACTLY how she wanted it to. Not that she’s trying to impress anyone, her wife probably couldn’t tell her apart from a gorilla, but it does make her feel slightly better. She hears a gruff greeting from behind her, Kjelle has already arrived to challenge her to a duel or something

“Good morning, Severa.”

She turns around, saying

“Yeah. Hi.”

but is definitely surprised when she sees Kjelle stop in her tracks and start staring. Kjelle blushes as she fiddles with her hands, then spits out

“Severa, you look absolutely dashing. I cannot take my eyes off you.”

“Of course. I look after my appearance. You should be proud of your lady.”

Severa blushes regardless of how flippant she wanted that remark to come off, and tries to hide her joyful smile with her hand. It’s rare enough that someone honestly compliments her, but from someone who she respects and loves so much, it’s too much. Severa turns around and attempts to hide her emotions by caustically saying

“So why ARE you over here, did you run out of sparring partners already?”

“Not… really, but that is a good idea. I’ll see you over at the practice rings.”

Severa whips back around to glare at Kjelle, now completely over the compliment, to yell

“Hey! You didn’t even answer my question!”

“Har! If you’re so curious, why don’t you try beating me!”

Severa yells at her retreating form, gradually increasing in volume and shrillness

“You! Are! THE! WORST!”


	7. Kjelle: Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kjelle: Let's be together always, Severa. I've never loved anyone like you.  
> Severa: I love you too. And if you cheat on me, I'll rip your eyebrows off with pliers.

“Um, sure… Lucina, are you sure that you don’t want to lay off the romance books for a while?”

“There are so many great lessons to be learnt, Kjelle! Would you have me pass up on the opportunity to find my true love?”

Kjelle is distracted for a moment, thinking of her own true love, but keeps up the stern glare at Lucina anyway. Kjelle begins to say something, but Lucina spies something interesting and stands up, saying

"Portraying the legendary hero, Marth, helped me achieve many of my ambitions, perhaps portraying others shall assist this one.”

“Lucina! Don’t…”

Lucina inhales sharply to pump herself up, completely missing Kjelle’s comment,  but as she leaves, Severa sits down, and immediately, bitterly announces

“Hello, Kjelle.”

Kjelle realizes that Severa must’ve gotten jealous just because she was talking with Lucina for such a long time, so tries to win her over with an unconvincing smile and saying

“Let's be together always, Severa. I've never loved anyone like you.”

“I love you too. And if you cheat on me, I'll rip your eyebrows off with pliers.”

“Uh, what?”

Despite Kjelle’s confusion, Severa continues, with a bit of sadistic pleasure

“Pliers. You know, those metal pincer tools? Really painful and sharp? Those.”

“I know what pliers are. Also, if you’re jealous of me talking with another girl, just say so.”

Severa slams her hand on the table to glare at Kjelle more effectively while shouting

“I’m not jealous!”

“Yes, you are. But just for reference, I was trying to stop her from embarrassing herself. She’s been reading her mom’s romance novels, and thought they might give some good advice.”

They both watch as Lucina approaches Gerome with her hips swaying, and leans down with her perfectly flat rear end exposed as she tries her attempt at a seductive voice, saying

“Um, good morning, Gerome.”

With obvious humour, Severa comments

“Oh gods, what romance novel did she READ?”

“Ribald tales of the faith war.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ribald: referring to sexual matters in an amusingly rude or irreverent way.  
> I didn't know that, so maybe it'll be helpful to someone else, too.


	8. Kjelle: Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This quote is completely ridiculous and nonsensical, so I had to come up with a reasonable explanation. That explanation was VERY easy to extrapolate into a giant run-on story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kjelle: Severa, is something caught on your weapon? You should be careful.  
> Severa: I baked this for you. Now open wide and don't dare complain about the taste!

Severa calmly walks into the mess tent, and immediately notices someone busily scraping ingredients together. Lissa is using an elixir and far too many different ingredients, Severa can’t even tell what she’s trying to make. She kind of eases around towards the pantry, but Lissa notices someone enter, and excitedly says

“Oh, Cordelia, could you put this pie in the oven for me? Thanks!”

then runs off as Severa tries to harshly shout

“HEY!”

at her. Severa trudges over to the counter, deciding that it’s worth the tiny amount of trouble to do this than to chase the excitable princess down. She glances down at the table, totally coated in random ingredients and parts of the pie. It’s certainly… Colourful, but she really hopes that chives end up going well with cinnamon, sugar, bits of apple, and week-old beef jerky in case someone actually has to eat this.

With a sigh, she laboriously walks over to the pile of wood, and weighs the exact amount a pie will need in her hand. It’ll take a while for the range to warm up, and Severa estimates that if she’s fast, she can get the donut batter done by then. She shoves the wood and some wood shavings into the oven, and hastily scrapes the nearby flint against her steel knife. She sighs as it ends up scraping off more of the edge of the knife, then concentrates, and practically slices at the flint with the dull side of the knife, sending a few sparks towards the kindling. Her patience swiftly wearing thin, she scrapes the knife along the flint with excessive force, igniting the wood shavings. As soon as she spies the first lick of flame go up, she gropes for the bellows, dropping the flint in the process, then feeds the fire some air enthusiastically. She perfectly performs the motions, swiftly easing the fire onto the much meatier logs, then shoves the bellows back to its last position. The heat of the flame isn’t exactly jarring, but she wastes no time in slamming the furnace closed, then rushing back over to the ingredients.

The table is a complete mess, so she takes what she needs over to one of the other mess tables. Full, the tent can fit all of the shepherds, and each table is robust enough to handle some of Basilio’s gesticulations. Even with the destruction Lissa enacted upon their food stores, there’s plenty of sugar left, which is very lucky for Severa. She mostly picked donuts because they’re hard to mess up, all of the sugar overrides whatever she could do wrong. Not to mention that the jam preserves near the tent entrance are just DYING to be utilized properly. Sure, it MIGHT be for tonight’s dessert, but Severa will make sure to just use what she needs. Which won’t be too much, right?

Making the batter was easier than she thought, but stirring it takes some real time. She remembers to check the range, so she props the bowl of batter and spoon practically glued to it against the bag of flour, and hastily grabs Lissa’s pie. It’s a heavy pot pie, so she can’t carry it with one hand without it spilling all over the floor. With a sigh, she sets it down, and Owain suddenly pops out of nowhere, directly in front of her, saying

“Good day, Severa! What, pray tell, is this delectable-looking pie you have before you?”

“Gah! Owain!”

He swiftly sticks a finger into it and draws out a bit of filling, much to Severa’s increasing horror and rage, and shoves it in his mouth. Before he can even taste it, Severa condescendingly stares down and says

“Hey! That’s YOUR MOM’s pie, and it hasn’t even been baked yet! She’ll LOVE the story of Owain disrupting all of her quaint little plans… Um, why are you rolling on the ground…”

“Urk… Cannot… go on… Carry on my… mission, Severa!”

“Oh come on, it can’t be THAT bad.”

Severa glances at the uncooked pie, then back at Owain, his flailing spasms giving way to a choking sound before he falls quiet. She sighs, he’s probably just acting, but it can’t hurt to take him to the medical tent after she puts the pie away. She does so quickly, panic growing in her mind as Owain continues to lay still. She bends down to put Owain into a fireman’s carry, then sprints off to the medical tent.

Tearing through the tent’s flap, she glares around the abandoned tent, spotting Brady half-asleep on a chair in the left corner. She snaps, yelling

“Brady!”

Then waiting for his startled

“Huh?”

Before continuing with

“This galoot has food poisoning! Do your healing stuff!”

She picks at cot at random, then roughly plops Owain onto it. He wakens with a start, then just moans at the girl leering over his bed. It still tastes like he ate a rotten skunk, but he additionally feels like his stomach is doing flips in protest, and every inch of his body is radiating heat. Brady stands up, grabbing his staff, and peers over at the writhing myrmidon before him. Owain suddenly shouts out, waving his arms rhythmically

“My blood screams at its fleshy prison, seeking to boil its way through my skin! No barrier shall halt its progress, I shall soon transform into a ball of searing fire!”

At this last statement, Owain throws his hands into the air, but lets them lifelessly fall to the ground, exhausted at his outburst. Severa looks at Brady expectantly, who says

“Get ‘im some water, ‘es even more nutty than usual!”

“I know!”

Is what she barked out as swiftly as possible, but the urgency in Severa’s voice betrayed any coldness or callousness she usually attempted to portray, and she sprints off as quickly as possible. Brady begins using his heal staff, and thankfully, Owain has a healthy constitution, so whatever awful poison he contracted probably won’t kill him. What did Severa say it was? Food poisoning? Brady will have to ask what it was later.

Severa sprints over to the river, suddenly cognizant to the fact that she has no bucket to store water. The thick grasses and cattails block most of her vision, but she manages to spy a single wooden bucket on a small beach, apparently abandoned there. She jumps over the grass, digging her feet into the sand so as not to slip, grabs the bucket hastily, then kneels in the sand to fill the bucket with water. She flinches at her dirty kneepads, they’ll be a chore to clean, but tries to put thoughts like that out of her mind. She fails miserably, though, and is completely distracted by the thought of having to fight today. They’ll be marching out in just a few hours, which won’t be enough time to clean up herself, get all of her equipment ready, AND bake donuts for herself and Kjelle.

Severa wasn’t paying attention to the bucket, but returns her focus and fills it up with the swift flow of the shallow river. She moves just fast enough to be clearly rushing someplace, but doesn’t spill any water as she brushes past tall grass, and almost right into the arms of some ruffian holding a hand axe. He hastily says

“Hey, we’re, um, kidnapping you, so stay still… I mean, come with us…”

Severa glares at the burly, but insanely awkward barbarian just long enough to distract him by smashing the entire bucket of water into his face, sending a shower of wood and glassy droplets around her, then ripping the hand axe out of his shocked grasp with her other hand. She knocks him out with a savage smash with the handle of the hand axe, then spins around to look for more  opponents. A berserker holding a short axe jumps into the middle of the river, and announces

“HEY! Drop that weapon! You’re outnumbered!”

Severa smirks, angrily barking

“You’re barely an INSECT compared to me!”

as three fighters, a sniper, two mercenaries, and a mage join him in the riverbed. She steps calmly through the reeds, casually engaging a thief hidden right next to her. The thief dodges her first blow with a flip, but she grabs his leg, smashing his face into the ground, then steals his iron sword. She drops the hand axe and pins the thief’s arms with one hand, and lifts the sword to his neck. Severa menacingly jumps out of the reeds, revealing her captive, then says

“Back off, and I MIGHT just have mercy on you.”

Her statement has almost no effect. A few of the bandits look nervous, but the berserker just looks even more smug than he did before. The sniper lets out a chuckle, then nocks an arrow into her silver bow, pointing directly at Severa’s head. The mage charges up a spell, and Severa’s thief captive wimpers pathetically. The berserker holds his hand up to signal his crew, but decides to taunt Severa, saying

“Pahaha! You’re making a lame threat like that against a sniper? You’ll be dead before Craig loses a SPECK of blood!”

The berserker lowers his hand, making Severa sigh quickly at their horrible battlefield strategy. She abandons the thief, jumping into the air directly over the silver arrow, and lands right between the sniper and berserker. A quick slash, and the sniper is holding a broken bow. The berserker is fast enough that Severa has to dodge his mighty swing, but he ends up hitting the sniper’s armoured left shoulder, causing a deep wound. The mage doesn’t react quick enough to fire, but two fighters quickly close in on Severa. She parries the first one’s clumsy swing, and with an almost instantaneous riposte, slices a large gash up his axe arm, but has to jump out of the way to avoid the second fighter’s more directed strike. As she splashes into the shallow water, the mage has moved into position to fire, and unleashes a small elwind tornado which pulls water into itself, obscuring the bandits’ view of Severa as she dodges around it. She winds up right next to the mage, and is just about to stab him, when a mercenary about her age parries with her shield, then attempts to riposte. Severa sidesteps neatly, but in the wrong direction, so her sword glances off the perfectly utilized shield. With a backflip, Severa sarcastically quips at her pained grimace

“Pah! You should be a knight if you’re that good with a shield!”

Unfortunately, the second mercenary has caught up, and manages to graze Severa’s armour, causing a neat slash mark on the cured leather. She tries to backflip away again, but the berserker throws his short axe, which Severa just barely dodges, leaning backwards from her knees, but the short axe still hits her knees, knocking off her left kneepad into the river’s flow. She manages to get back on her feet, but these bandits are much more prepared than she gave them credit for. The barbarian she knocked out is already back up, and most of them have taken vulneraries, not to mention that they’re now standing between her and the camp, making retreat impossible. Severa steels herself as another easily dodged elwind is launched her way, but notices a furious looking figure in the background in the brief instant before she puts her full attention back onto the melee. No more pulling punches, these bandits aren’t going to back down, so neither will she.

The two mercenaries attack in unison, but this means they can’t cover each other, so Severa hops to the right and slashes upwards, cleanly severing the mercenary’s arm, then stabs him in the heart. The fighters approach from her right side, but Severa stabs the other mercenary through before they can assist her. The three fighters seem to be taken aback by the sudden stabbing, but are spurred back into action by a hand axe hurtling past their opponent. The first one swings wide, and the other two wait for Severa to make a move, crouched and ready to leap, but she doesn’t, instead opting to step back and grab the handle of the steel axe, yanking it from her opponent’s grasp by countering the momentum of the swing. She drops her iron sword, then whirls the axe around to easily hit the surprised fighter in the head, which finishes him quickly. The fighter to her left jumps to attack, and the one on the right waits for her guard to open, so she rolls under the attacking fighter, then slices his back open once he lands. For such a solid blow, she stays down for just long enough for the last fighter to approach and begin attacking, forcing her to block with the steel axe. The fighter’s savage blow vibrates across her hands, and she fails to riposte, so brings herself into a more defensive stance and searches around for the sword she dropped. She glances back up to counter the next blow, but realizes that the fighter seems to be frozen in place, before limply slumping onto the blood-soaked river. She stands up to see who assisted her with the remaining bandits, announcing hastily

“I had that one, you know! Don’t try to say that you ‘saved’ me, or something.”

She glares at Noire, the archer timidly standing in the reeds at the riverbank. Severa swiftly changes her expression to that of a nicer glare before saying

“Although, that was pretty good archery…”

then blushes awkwardly, very embarrassed that she almost yelled at Noire. The archer stands there, blubbering, then spits out

“S-Severa… a-are you all right? There were so many bandits, and, and…”

Severa sighs, then goes over to calm down Noire, softly saying

“Well, it’s fine now, isn’t it? Besides, why are you here? It’s not like I sent a messenger or something.”

“Well, Brady told me to get some water for O-Owain, he’s looking really bad…”

“Ugh, of course he’d get himself into a pickle like this, do you have some water?”

“Y-yeah…”

Severa grabs the bucket noticeably more intact than her own, then, while running off, snips back

“Well, what are we waiting for?!”

Noire tries to respond while running, but Severa has always been exceptional at sprinting, and she only manages to hear

“Severa! Wait… up…”

With Noire far, far behind, Severa finally reaches the medical tent, then unclasps her hands from the bucket to place it on Owain’s bedside table. Brady is still healing around Owain’s belly, but acknowledges Severa with a

“Hells bells, you really showed up! Try ta get him ta drink some of it.”

“Ugh, do I HAVE to? He can’t be THAT close to death.”

“Given that you made ‘im wait, fer, like, an ‘our? Yeah! Ya do!”

Under Brady’s friendly glare, Severa sighs, and gets a small bowl to transport the water over to Owain, who, surprisingly, says

“Hail, Severa, the one who was lost, and is now found! You wer… glubblug”

Severa interrupts while shoving the bowl into his mouth, snapping back at him

“Geez, I get it! I was gone a while! It SERIOUSLY wasn’t my fault, though!”

“Yeah? Fine, what’s the excuse ya got?”

“I was attacked by bandits, and probably would’ve been stuck here WITH Owain if it wasn’t for Noire. So shut your traps, snarkily replying to people is MY turf, Brady!”

“I’ve only got the one trap, lady!”

“You won’t have it for very long if you keep jabbering on!”

“Oh yeah?”

“YEAH!”

Severa and Brady glare daggers at each other. Severa tightens her grip on the bowl half in and half out of Owain’s mouth, and Brady’s clenching on his heal staff makes it glow more, so Owain just grabs both of their arms to shove them off of him, saying, with some haste

“You destined combatants may very well slaughter each other, but do not harm innocent bystanders! Your heated discussions here are fated to boil over into disaster!”

“Oh, right! I’m probably burning that stupid pie that poisoned you in the first place! Brady, I’m going to beat the snot out of you later.”

With that, Severa runs out of the medical tent. Everyone within breathes a sigh of relief, most of all Owain, who picks up the carefully-replaced bowl of water and takes a long-deserved draught. Brady’s sigh is punctuated with

“Ooh, that Severa, I just could punch a brick!”

“Please don’t. I’m already covered in enough water.”

“Huh?”

In her rush to leave, Severa had spilled the bowl onto Owain, and Brady’s frequent bursts of emotion would not help the situation. Faintly amused by his oblivious goonery, Owain just shakes his head and calmly retrieves some water for himself.

Severa hurries over to the oven, snatching up a towel on her way, and notes the lack of any flame beneath it. She opens the range to reveal a mostly-black circular disc in the middle. As her response, she merely sighs, and extracts it much slower than she was rushing over here for. Whatever. At least she can still make those donuts for herself and Kjelle.

*CRASH*

“Oh! Wow! Hey Severa, look what happened to the sugar!”

Severa spins on her heel to see Morgan, with a fire tome, and a bag of sugar scattered into the air. It’s quite pretty, shimmering around, but Severa swiftly connects the dots. It’s already dangerous enough with the dozens of other ingredients also strewn through the air, but a pile of candles, some set up in a circle already, a fire tome, one of Miriel’s journals… She runs towards Morgan with a tackle, screaming

“DON’T YOU DARE!”

Then jumping onto his shocked face. He announces

“Gah! Severa! Wha-I thought you didn’t like me!”

Severa grabs Morgan by the ear, snatches the tome from his grasp, and pulls him up from the ground. He responds

“Woah! Hey, what’s the…”

“Don’t you know anything?! If there’s ANY kind of powder in the air, just a single spark can cause a HUGE explosion!” Severa gesticulates with the fire tome for emphasis, and Morgan quickly absorbs the information, and watches with dread as the magic sparks off of Severa’s hand and onto the pages, slowly, gradually, but eventually building up. He tries to interrupt Severa

“Seriously, could you have picked a WORSE…”

“Uh, Severa…”

“I’m not done! Could you have picked a worse spot than the…”

“Severa!”

“Morgan, if you don’t think fire safety…” Morgan watches with growing panic as a faint ring of runes forms around the two of them, so he tackles Severa onto the floor as the room erupts into a massive fireball.

Underneath the thick, protective coat, Severa and Morgan survive unscathed, but Morgan took a breath for encouragement, and the wind was knocked out of Severa’s chest by the tackle, so she’s out cold. As the heat dissipates, Morgan leaps up to glance around at the destruction. The entire tent is ablaze, but mostly burnt to the ground by the initial explosion. The canvas must’ve been enough to contain the powder, but not enough to withstand the blast. He smiles, having discovered something new and useful, but stops once he spies Severa’s prone form on the ground. A little light-headed, he tries to pick her up, but his knees give out as other shepherds swarm the flaming wreckage. Brady and Noire are the first to arrive, along with an awe-filled laugh from Henry

“Hahaha! Awesome! Morgan, do that again!”

but is cut off abruptly by a pained glare from the boy in question, and stops smiling himself once he sees Severa lying on the ground. Brady’s staff’s glow is accompanied by a cough from both himself and Noire, and is interrupted by a horse sweeping down from the sky and extracting Severa, placing her into a much more aerated location. Cordelia steps down to give a sly smile and look down upon the healers nearby. She explains

“What you need to do first after an explosion like that, is leave the vicinity. The fire will have eaten up all of the oxygen, so sticking around is dangerous.”

Maribelle rides over to examine Severa, and says

“I couldn’t have said it better myself. She’s experienced a modicum of asphyxiation, but will make a full recovery.”

Almost as a response, Severa gasps, and wakes up, immediately clutching her mom’s leg and saying

“Gods! What just..”

in surprise, Maribelle clucks

“Well, she clearly inherited your constitution, Cordelia. I shall be returning to practice. Care to join me?”

Cordelia looks fondly upon her blushing spawn who recoils embarrassingly away from Cordelia’s leg as if she was caught doing something completely inappropriate. The pegasus knight states simply

“In a moment. Severa, are you all right?”

“Y-you should be practicing…”

but Severa accepts the hand up anyway, quickly averting her gaze so its easier for her to quip back sardonically

“Gods, this just goes to show EXACTLY how much better than me you still are.”

Cordelia puts her hands gently on Severa’s shoulders, squeezing them tightly, and, more than matching Severa’s bitterness, privately whispers

“You got to marry the first love of your life, didn’t you?”

Severa turns around, gaping at Cordelia with mixed amusement and betrayal, says

“Is THAT supposed to make me feel better?!”

“Well, I DID get to marry the second love of my life.”

Leaving her daughter more worried than relieved, Cordelia casually mounts her pegasus with a smile and leaves after Maribelle. Severa shakes her head fondly, turns around to assess what she can salvage. She is NOT leaving without having baked something for Kjelle. She could PROBABLY make it back to camp from town, especially if she didn’t intend to ask to use a range…

“Um, Severa? A-are you all right?”

“Oh, sorry, Noire, that probably looked really bad, but it really wasn’t. With Morgan flopping on top of me with his thick coat, the only bad thing that happened was that no air got to my brain, for, like, half a minute or so. Nothing serious.”

“Uh… That doesn’t… really sound like nothing…”

“Well, I’m running around perfectly fine now, right? Gods, you don’t need to fret over me like I’m a spring lamb!”

Severa stares paralyzingly critically at Noire for a moment before sprinting off in a random direction, to fast to hear Noire sputter out

“B-but you almost… d-died twice!”

Severa has to shoulder past the rest of the crowd being amused by Morgan, but swiftly finds her way to the tactician’s tent to begin her demands. She pushes through, and accidentally pushes Robin over, slamming directly into her side. The tactician is quick to respond, saying

“OW! Who? Hm…”

but continues deciding between two books even while on the ground. Severa interrupts her shoving one of the two books into her coat by rolling off of her while saying

“What were you doing there?! I mean,” then awkwardly switching between informal grumbling and a formal request, says “I’d like to volunteer for a procurement run.”

Severa offers a hand out to Robin, but she clearly has her own ideas on getting up, using the crates stacked outside her tent flap as a crutch as well as putting the unwanted book away. Robin gradually responds, saying

“I think I have a right to be wherever I want in my own tent, Severa. Also, what brought up this sudden desire? You have a special night out in town planned for you and someone else who we shan’t name?”

With a slightly cocky smile, Robin attempts to appear ‘cool’ and ‘in-the-know’, and succeeding valiantly, not that Severa would ever tell her that. Severa gives her an impressively fed-up look, and, as plainly as she can, says

“Uh, no, the entire mess tent just exploded, and I was going to restock the shelves. So, could I have some money?”

“Wait, that was the mess tent which exploded? Wow, I assumed that Miriel was just practicing with noisier fire spells! How much did we lose?”

“Ugh, could I just have some money first?”

Robin returns the same fed-up look, but with a bit more authority and menace, so Severa exasperatedly sputters

“F-fine, we lost pretty much everything. The cast-iron range, Morgan, and I were the only survivors.”

“Well, that range could probably survive a bolganone… WAIT, Morgan?! Oh gods! I should’ve known!”

Robin sprints out, and an almost immediate *thump* is heard, before she turns around, slightly dazed, and says

“Oh, ok, he’s ok… ok, where was I?”

“You were right about to give me money?”

Severa says hopefully. The response is immediate, Robin replying

“Ha, right, you were trying to get money to do something with your girlfriend. How about you tell me, then we’ll talk.”

“No! I wasn’t trying to… Well… I needed the money because I was trying to make donuts for Kjelle and I, but the batter went up in the explosion, so I actually WAS going to get ingredients from the market, I was just going to bake it there to. So see! Nothing sinister.”

“Wow, you’re doing something nice for Kjelle? Whenever I see you two together, it seems like you’re engaged in some sort of verbal battle…”

Severa blushes, and interrupts perhaps too hastily

“Well, she gave me this nice leather bracelet, so I’m just repaying the favor. Nothing more than that!”

“Hehe, you two definitely have my blessing. If you can bring back a few bags of sugar or something so the real procurement run doesn’t have to do as much work, that’d be nice too. Just drop them off at the supply.”

Robin fishes for some coins, then lets Severa go with just enough gold to buy the basic ingredients. Severa definitely has a sarcastic remark for that

“Wow, really letting me go off on a spending spree here!”

“Did you want my trust or not? If no, I can just take the gold back…”

“Sigh. Point taken.”

As Severa exits, Robin wonders for a moment whether or not she really just said the word ‘sigh’ out loud. Well, she still probably isn’t as bad as Cordelia yet.

Severa arrives at the village without any difficulty, completely uniquely for this horrible day. It’s actually a pretty large farming village, and the busy general store is certainly a testament to that. Most of its wares are actually out front, and it looks like more of a trading post rather than a true store, but Severa knows that they originally got the sugar from somewhere, so this seems a good place to start. It’s past midday, so the crowd of people is quite aggravating. She stands out among the field of faded beige colours, trying to shove her way through the open door. The villagers are mostly polite enough to allow her in, but she has to stop and wait while an old man finishes his trade of a large cantaloupe for a skillfully polished bronze blade. He fumbles the soft sphere, almost dropping it, but Severa catches it, and snips back, saying

“Hey, this was expensive! Don’t you dare waste it all at once.”

The man gapes at her inconsistency, but doesn’t pay enough heed to stop her from charging into the tiny building. The general store definitely feels small town, since she easily finds the salt, sugar, and flour she needs, but the toymaker’s wares are clearly displayed next to them, along with plenty of chewing tobacco and very cheap liquor. She sighs, grabbing the three ingredients was easy, but after she paid for these, she’d have to find someone willing to sell milk, eggs, and butter for reasonable prices. She trudges up to the counter, hefting the three weighty bags with ease, and announces

“How much for these three?”

The store clerk checks out her clothes, then responds

“Are you a mercenary or somethin’?”

“No. How much do you want for these three?”

“Huh. I dunno, with those clothes, you’d make a mighty decent one.”

“How much money for these?”

“You know, I considered mercenary work when I was a little girl, and seeing you, it really makes me wish I had practiced more…”

The softly shutting door allows Severa a respite from the woman’s blithering, and she resolves to return later to actually pay for the stolen goods. Severa walks up to the first person in the trading market who looks remotely farmer-ish (so, all of them), and quickly says

“Hey! I need eggs, milk, and butter. How much gold would be a fair trade?”

“Uh… I don’t trade in gold. Whaddya use that for?”

“Ugh. Buying, selling, in, like, literally any major city.”

At Severa’s ugh, the peasant crosses his arms defensively and says

“I don’t like yer attitude, you’ll probably get along with the city slicker, Paul, though. Now scat!”

The farmer points towards the person with the nicest clothes, prompting Severa to immediately, pointedly respond

“Thanks.”

How can a random FARMER complain about her attitude! What cheek! She was just about to give him money for his cheap goods, too. Weaving through the crowd, she notices that no one is trading with Paul either. Maybe some sort of rivalry thing? Well, she does NOT want to become involved with some dumb peasant village roughhousing, so she immediately goes up to the tall, skinny man and says

“Eggs, milk, and butter, how much for them?”

“O-oh alright, you’re a bit more direct than the country folk around here. Total, eight gold please.”

“Here you are.”

As Severa attempts to stack everything on top of each other, re-arranging the eggs so the bags of salt and sugar will fit, the farmer says

“Er, do you need a larger basket? You seem to be struggling a tad…”

Severa loops the bucket of milk around her arm, has managed to fit the sugar into the eggs, has balanced the salt and flour atop it, and has the butter in the other arm. She snaps

“No! Um, maybe…”

as it stops balancing correctly, and Severa barely catches the sliding bag of salt. She quickly says back to the trader, more politely than before

“Yeah, that’d be nice. Thanks.”

He hands her a large wicker basket, easily enough to carry every ingredient, and she tips him two gold. Severa stares around for a moment, looking for a place that might have a range for rent, then spies the general store’s sign and remembers

“Wait, do you know how expensive salt, sugar, and flour would be from the general store?”

“Uh, since she has to put it all in those bags? Probably ten gold.”

“Thanks.”

Severa has an idea. She sneaks to the back of the general store, and easily finds the back entrance. This place is clearly a dwelling as well, so she figures that they must have a range somewhere. The basket is unwieldy and hard to fit through the door, the clutter is kind of unreasonable. A broken toy on top of a crate is joined by a pile of prairie flowers in a tiny wooden cup, which Severa tries to muscle past, but her basket bumps the crate. She fortunately stops the crate from moving before anything falls off, but realizes that she needs a better plan. She backs out, then goes in first with the basket trailing behind her.

The first room to the left of the door is the kitchen, with a pile of wood and a simple range. There are a few pots hanging from the ceiling, but it’s far from lavish, even the stone beneath the range is covered in soot. Severa searches around for the flint, and finds it underneath the stove as she puts the wood into place. There’s only a couple grams of wood shavings, so Severa shreds a bit of the log instead of using theirs. She already stole something from this store, coming back and stealing all their wood would be quite the social faux pas. Using her knife like before, she easily lights up the range, then concentrates on forming the donut batter.

She puts another log on, and finally begins baking the two donuts. With a sigh of relief, she leans against the nearby wall. Her ingredients are scattered around, so she organizes them back into the basket, just as a bit of busywork. While doing so, she hears the angry slamming of a door, and watches the furious shopkeeper barge into the kitchen, yelling

“What’s this?!”

Severa panics, extracting the donuts without using a towel, then tries to act surprised, saying

“Huh? I thought for SURE that this was a public range. Of course, since you’re here, I owe you ten gold, and you might deserve the other ten since I stole… I mean borrowed your range. Temporarily.”

Severa drops the bag of gold, picks up her basket, and begins leaving as the shopkeeper shouts, confused, but still angry

“Paying for the goods ain’t enough… This is a lot of… GET BACK HERE, YA NINNY!”

“Make me!”

Severa is out of the door, and sprinting with a bag full of ingredients much faster than the shopkeeper can react. The shopkeeper comforts herself with the extremely valuable sack of gold, but makes sure to complain about it to her husband later.

Once Severa hits the open path on her way to the camp, she feels the literal burns on her hands. The wicker fibers feel like they’re digging into her skin, but she grits her teeth and ignores it. What she can’t ignore, though, is that her elongated, flaky donuts are barely cooked. They need a few more minutes at least, and there’s almost no time before the battle. As she runs, she concocts a plan. She could probably cook it on her armour’s shield, and if she gets everything ready quickly, she won’t have to run back to the supply tent to get a sword. Besides, Robin said to drop the things she picked up off at the supply tent anyway.

She arrives at the camp, and starts with a beeline towards the supply tent, dropping off the basket, but breaking off a slab of said wicker basket to transport the half-baked donuts. She finds Stahl and Sully comparing lances, Vaike heedlessly swinging an axe around the aisles, and Robin with Laurent at the very back labelling weapons in unison. She practically leaps over to the steel swords, and grabs the first one that isn’t completely dull, barely hearing Robin yell something about grabbing a vulnerary and levin sword. She snatches a nearby levin sword, too, but declines running all the way across the tent just for a vulnerary she probably won’t even use anyway, instead sprinting across camp for her own tent, wicker platter held steadily before her.

The first hurdle comes in the form of Kjelle, the knight appearing almost magically in front of her path. As soon as Severa spots her, she shoves the wicker plate under the nearest tent, successfully hiding her panic by pretending to trip. Kjelle, quite concerned by Severa’s apparent loss of dexterity, goes over to say

“Hey, what’s going on? Apparently you’ve been sprinting all over camp today, fighting bandits, and exploding the mess tent? Wouldn’t want you to outdo me with your training.”

“Pah! You’re so obsessed I could train every hour and still not catch up. Try picking on someone your own size.”

Kjelle stares directly at Severa, grasping her shoulder firmly, and trying to redirect the more nervous girl’s gaze towards her. She smiles to say

“I’m going to ignore the unintended compliment for now, “ but shifts to a more serious tone when she says “as I’m honestly slightly worried. Have you caught the drift of a local assassin’s guild? I would enjoy helping take them out.”

Severa tries to avoid smiling at Kjelle’s excited inflection, she is exactly the kind of weirdo to want her wife to be under attack by assassins, and instead concentrates on getting out of here as quickly as possible. She nicely snaps back

“What?! If I was doing something THAT exciting, I’d come to you first! At least you could take a few arrows for me. What I’m ACTUALLY doing is trying to prepare for the battle in just a few minutes! I mean, do you see me? I have NO makeup on, and one of my kneepads is off.”

“Well, I couldn’t tell anyway, so if it’s THAT important, go.”

As Severa bows out, she sarcastically drawls

“Thaaank you.”

Then sneakily grabs the wicker platter as Kjelle rolls her eyes and turns away.

At her tent, she flinches as she is forced to ignore the many unused lotions and makeups. She finds her proper armour set packed under her cot, and retrieves the shield she got on promotion. Severa doesn’t even bother with getting another kneepad, but tries to hastily shove on her flexible chest armour before dashing out the door, donuts now balanced on the well-maintained shield. As she runs, she removes the leather strap on the smaller upper-arm piece, and hangs it around her levin sword. The campfire is still burning, so she sets her shield and the donuts on top, sighing as she slumps into a rough sitting position next to it, angry at what she has been reduced to by today’s absurd circumstances.

She decides to make doubly sure that this steel sword is usable, but notices a few dents and smooth patches on the blade. Thankfully, spending time as a mercenary, especially out in the middle of nowhere with no supply train taught her how to use a dull blade as if it were new. She holds it up to the fire, staring down it to judge how straight it is, when she hears

“Agh!”

and a clattering clank, Sumia’s lance falling into the fire, onto Severa’s shield, which catapults Severa’s donuts directly at her. In a quick burst of reflex, the merciless mercenary impales both of the offending objects, then lets out an even longer sigh when she realizes what she’s done. Sumia spies Severa’s unpleasantly exhausted face, and quickly says

“Oh! Sorry! Is everything…”

“Get your lance out of the fire first!”

“Right!”

Sumia’s lance hadn’t caught fire yet, and wary of Severa’s stern gaze, she runs off to the stables. Severa, meanwhile, accepts the fact that the treats she prepared for Kjelle throughout the entire day would have to accompany them into battle via her sword.

She kicks her shield out of the fire, partially sheathes her sword, and gets set to leave.

 

\--

 

Finally set into marching formation, Severa approaches Kjelle with a wary glance and her sword at her side. She opens her mouth to say something, but is interrupted by Kjelle’s harsh words

“Severa, is something caught on your weapon? You should be careful.”

“I baked this for you. Now open wide and don't dare complain about the taste!”

Kjelle gapes at the odd sight with a critical eye, and tries to say something, but is interrupted by Severa shoving one of the pastries into her mouth. The expression Severa is giving her makes it apparent that she doesn’t want to be bothered anytime soon, so she just enjoys the delectable treat for the first section of the long march. Teasing Severa is easy enough to fit into one’s everyday schedule.


End file.
